Language of the Blues - Edmonton Blues Society

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could have been poisoned with passagreen, a tasteless, odorless backwoods poison
extracted from mothballs. 298
Honeyboy Edwards were entertaining at a Greenwood, Mississippi juke known as Three
Forks one Saturday night in July 1938. Johnson had been a fixture at the joint for a few
weeks, and had found himself some female company. Unfortunately for Johnson, she was
the wife of the man who ran Three Forks. She pretended to come to Greenwood to see
her sister, but was actually visiting Johnson on the sly.
That Saturday night, however, Johnson and the lady made their affection for each other a
little too obvious. During a break in the music, Johnson and Williamson were standing
outside when someone handed Johnson an open half-pint of whisky. Williamson
purportedly knocked it
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When a second open bottle was offered to Johnson, he took a swig. Johnson and
Williamson returned to the stage, but several minutes into their set, Johnson could no
longer sing. Williamson covered for him on vocals but after a few more songs, Johnson
put down his guitar midsong.
By the time Honeyboy Edwards arrived around 10:30 p.m., Johnson was too weak to
continue playing. He was laid across a bed in an anteroom and taken in the early hours of
in Greenwood. 300
Young and strong, Johnson rallied but over the next two weeks he grew steadily weaker.
contracted pneumonia. He died on August 16, 1938.
PO L I C Y G A M E
The policy game was an illegal daily lottery introduced in Chicago in 1885, supposedly
by a bookie nicknamed Policy Sam. Players bet that certain numbers would be picked
from a wheel that was spun each evening,
Bolita
Hispanic, Italian, and African American population. It involved pulling numbered balls
from a bag of 100 balls.
By 1901, illegal gambling had spread throughout the United States and laws were on the
books prohibiting it. The games flourished, nonetheless, until states decided it was
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